AngryBanana's Favorite Player Comparison

[AngryBanana]

To give you all a christmas eve miracle, I wanted to put out one last article to celebrate this season, and also because we have been in sim limbo not having one in a few days during these conference championships. So what is a guy to do at his house during a week where he can actually deep dive a little into a sim, but the sim wont deep dive back? I guess it is article time.

There are some big debates that are out there in life. The first is one that is usually heard within any pro league, among pundits, players, and fans alike, is the argument of who is the greatest of all time in that respective league? Is it LeBron James or Michael Jordan in the National Basketball Association, is it Tom Brady or Jerry Rice in the National Football League, is it Wayne Gretzky or… some other hockey player in hockey? The second debate, which is more specific to PBSL and its General Managers, is the debate to do an article or not to get the points needed to keep your team going, in order to not fall into a treacherous point hell (shout out Louie, K100 who are still here and a moment of silence for t all the others in the past who have quit because they would rather just not do it anymore). So here is my attempt at trying to maximize my points to avoid any sort of depth. I am going to do my best to avoid this and write something I find interesting and hopefully someone reads most of this. Plus, you know points are nice and all as well.

I have been playing PBSL for what feels like 30 sim years now and I am now in the midst of one of the best seasons I have ever had, and the best chance I have ever had at a championship this late in the season. While I was looking through my sim results yesterday I got to thinking about how I have really had two builds since coming on. The first build was centered around Pete Maravich and the second build was around Zaire Wade. I know I had a few other smaller decent teams in there (shout out to Eckbert Williams, Daniel Oturu, and the other quasi center pieces I have had through the years), but personally these two guys are hands down who I say are organizational pillars since I came on. They are probably the only two pillars of this team since the organization was never really run well prior to me being here. This got me thinking who was the better player, both from personal opinion and from a stats standpoint.


Personal Opinion:

Pete Maravich was my first pick in PBSL way back when. I still remember joining right as it was my turn to pick. The team had a few decent project rookie players in Lino Brookins and Patrick Edmunds. So I was almost leaning towards drafting a big. I finally decided on Maravich due to his unique size and abilities. It took a while for Pete to get going because I was still learning how to develop players, but by his first year of his second contract I saw I had made a good investment in him. He turned into a stud by his fifth season. I had gotten so many trade offers for Pete while I had him, but I turned almost all of them down because I wanted to win a championship with him. I think I could have been offered Prime Jerry West and an agining, but still good Boban, and I would probably have turned it down. He was just that guy to me.

My teams also were always centered around Pete. I drafted Cage and Papagiorgio to be his running mates, I let go of Edmunds and Brookins, I brought in Eckbert to be a defensive presence. Finally it all accumulated in the season where I brought in JJ in a deal with the magic. That team was something, and Pete was their best player. I’ve often felt they were the clear favorites for the championship that year. Pete went to the ASG and won MVP of that exhibition game. Unfortunately, shortly after he fell to the cursed broken leg. And as quickly as his leg snapped, so did my chance at a title. After that season Pete was never the same on the court. He was eventually moved when I realized I could not win a championship with him as my “guy” anymore. I brought him back a few times when I felt I was a competitive team, just to win one with him.

While Pete was my first pick ever, Zaire was one that I hit the jackpot on from the beginning. I was slated to pick third in a two player draft. The top two picks that season were both purple potentials, and I was not happy that I was going to miss out on what would probably be the two best picks of the league in recent history, if not ever. Then when I hit on the #1 pick I was ecstatic. I want to say this was around the time I was doing my draft player profiles, to predict who was the best picks by the information available, and I remember not even looking at Wade or Whitley because I thought there was no chance I was going to get them. This pick was a lot harder than any I have had in the past. While I loved having Pete on my team, there were some limitations to the teams I built with him. I never had that lights out scorer. Pete was a good scorer, facilitator, and a defensive stud. Wade was projected to be a player similar to Pete, a great all around player. Whitley was projected to be an amazing scorer that would be a top 5 point scorer for the next several years. Did I want to do the same build to a degree as before with Wade, or do something new with Whitley. After thinking it over, I decided that Wade was the pick. I thought that Wade, being the all around better player, was the best option since I could not train either out of the gate being purple players.

The builds have been a little different with Wade. I was always looking for his counterpart after getting him. I knew I needed someone to help carry the load for Wade. That way if he is injured, I can still be competitive. I also had to have a project to pump points into. So after a few seasons, we traded for a pick in the draft to select Makur Maker. Add in a few seasons later where I had Hintz, and now Delmar and Tex, Wade has always had other prominent players next to him in some form or fashion. The combination of never being able to train Wade with having Maker around for the majority of his career has always made me be a little less possessive of Wade. While I was not looking to trade him, I think if the right deal came along he was on his way out.

Winner: Pete Maravich.

Pre PBSL Ability:

Pete: http://pbsl.ijbl.net/2022/players/player166.htm
Wade: http://pbsl.ijbl.net/2035/players/player50.htm

Let us start out with Andrew Mculley (Pete Maraich). Pete came out of college as a shooting guard. In his one season at Butler, he did ok. He had 9 points per game and had decent shooting percentages. He for sure looked like a project out of college more than a ready to play now guy. What made Pete so tantalizing as a prospect, as previously mentioned, was the A’s he had in 3 point shooting, passing, Perimeter Defense, and Steals to go with his six foot seven body and 98 quickness. He does have a few flaws, mainly his 44 stamina, and some low currents in places like inside and handling. He was the top prospect according to the index. Looking at his abilities from the draft profile though, he did look like a stud coming out of college that would be a hands down #1 pick in most drafts that we would be having now. Looking back at it I think the only player based on the initial look that I like more would be Trenton Williams. I have no idea who he became, and he was probably a scrub compared to someone I did not see like Grayson Allen or something.

Now there is Jerry Thompson (Zaire Wade). He was one of the first two players to have the Lakers’ color scheme for current/potential right out the box. Wade only had three A’s, compared to Pete’s 4, in Inside, Perimeter Defense, and Steal. However Wade had no F rankings for potentials and his athleticism was further along, mainly a +60 stamina. Also, while I could not improve Wade’s abilities he had high end C’s in categories such as 3 point shooting, passing, and post defense that gave me hope that they would improve through training camp. Wade’s one season at Mississippi State was also hinting more at what he was going to become than what he was performing at. He averaged 11 points per game and almost two steals per game average, which at least showed his two way ability. The other player in this draft that is clearly of note is Dorian Whitley. Who as I previously mentioned was a hard player to pass on. I even remember talking to other general manager’s who agreed that it was a hard pick. Whitley went on to win a few championships with the Spurs and being a top scorer in the league consistently.

When comparing the two players from a draft profile standpoint, if I had to choose between the two with the number one pick, I think my choice would probably be Wade. While I did say that Pete would be the number one pick in most years, against Wade that would not be the case. Pete would be more fun to have because of the ability to train him up, but Wade having out the gate very good potentials make him too good to not draft number one.

Winner: Wade

Abilities:

To do this accurately I am going to use the currents Pete had the year before his injury and compare them to Wade’s current abilities.

Pete’s 2031 stat page: http://pbsl.ijbl.net/2031/players/player166.htm
Wade’s 2044 stat page: http://pbsl.ijbl.net/players/player50.htm

The first thing of note that pops off the page is that Wade has three 100 point stats in INS, PRD, and STL, compared to Pete’s 100 in STL and 98 in PRD. Wade also holds the advantage in having the overall better stats across the board. This allows Wade to play at the 1-3 more competitively offensively and defensively compared to Pete. Where Pete was only moved to SF later in his career because of his slowing QKN. When it comes to their athletics, Pete holds a slight advantage. They are split 2-2, but Pete’s size advantage combined with his QKN really made it hard for any player to get by him. To me, either player could be argued to have been the better player here, but to me Wade not having any albatross current (such as Pete’s 9 PSD) really is the deciding factor to me.

Winner: Wade

Stats

Again, we are going to be using the two seasons again as the basis of my argument. Pete was rocking 16.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, 10.4 assists, 2.3 steals on .497/.706/.425 shooting on about 33 mins. Wade was going with 22.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 2.9 steals on .516/.690/.396 shooting in 35 minutes. A few things that stick out to me off the bat was I forgot how good Pete was on offense in his prime. He was averaging over 10 assists a game when outside of Nathaniel Anderson and an out of place Ash Ketchum, he did not have the talent around him to be putting up those numbers. He really was elevating everyone’s play around him at the time. I also took for granted his three point game. Having your main star be able to shoot anywhere on the court is huge and has always been a struggle when centering teams around Wade. Pete was second in assists that season, to go along with a top 10 showing for three point percentage. While I’m praising Pete’s shooting ability, Wade is no slouch on the offensive end either. He is averaging 22pts on an offensively stacked Thunder team this season. That is a top 25 mark to go along with his top ranking steal for the league. Wade has been a terror for anyone he plays this season. Looking at advanced stats, they are comparable to me, Wade has the higher efficiency ratings in part due to the team around him, but the fact he has a higher PER is a little surprising to me given that the whole offense revolved around Pete at point guard, and Wade is my Shooting Guard this season. All in all I feel this edges out to Wade for once again going across the board being better.

Winner: Wade

Awards:

For this I will actually move up one season for Pete, given that his half season that year adds merits without taking away anything for a shortened season. So let’s look at his award mantle:
player of the game: 129
Player of the week: 2
All Star Appearances: 2
All Star Game MVP: 1
All League Third Team: 1
All Defensive Second Team: 1

Now let’s compare that to Wade:
Player of the Game: 151
Player of the Week: 2
Player of the Month: 1
All Star Appearances: 4
All League Second Team: 2
All League Third Team: 1
All Defensive First Team: 5
Defensive Player of the Year: 1
Leader in Steals: 1

Wade has considerably more awards than Pete, and this is a year sooner than Pete was at by this point in both of their careers. Wade has double the All Star Appearance, a Player of the Month Award l, and better defensive awards than Pete. I do need to take into account the talent Petr was playing against at the time for some of this. The PG depth at this time was pretty crazy. He was never quite PG1 material in the League and someone always did better than him in a few crucial places to keep Pete from climbing up the ranks of the hierarchy. I think the broken leg is crucial here too. If Pete stayed healthy, he would have probably doubled most of the awards above with time. Where once he was no longer my clear point guard, a natural move to shooting guard would have kept him in the all Star category.

I’m also impressed with Wade and how much he broke away from Pete in this category. Before looking at the numbers I would have assumed Pete would have wiped the floor with Wade. However with Wade now having Defensive Player of the Year, the first time I remember a guard having the award in a long time, he also led the league this year in steals. This are things Pete never got close to doing and would never accomplish from an overall career aspect either. Wade clearly has had the better career in this regard and it’s no competition.

The (additional) award goes to Wade.

Thunder Leaderboards:

So the Node is down for the foreseeable future and I can not fill this part out, so I am going to just go ahead and kinda presume some things here on where both players sit on the all time leaders for the Thunder franchise. Before even looking at their player pages, I know for a fact Pete leads the Thunder in assists. If anyone tells you otherwise, its fake news. I also believe that Pete is top 5 in steals and probably top 5-10 in points. Not only was he a great player while he was here, he also was here for so long compared to other players historically. I also would think that Pete probably is top 5 in double doubles, would be higher if I did not consistently have players who scored and rebounded (Eckbert, Nathaniel Anderson, Daniel Oturu, Makur Maker) and leads the franchise in triple doubles. When it comes to Wade I think if his career ends after this season he has 13,479 points. I think this number is a top 10 number, 4,100 assists which are probably also top ten, and then 1600 steals which I would think is a top three to four mark. All in all, Pete had eleven seasons continuously, some during his prime, where he was on the Thunder. Compared to Zaire Wade, who up to this point has been on the Thunder for eight seasons. So I think that while Pete has more prestige in the organization from a leaderboard standpoint, if they both played for the Thunder for the same amount of years Wade would surely surpass Pete in a few categories such as steals and probably the advanced stats like DEFF.

So now looking at what has been tallied up so far, Wade is winning by a somewhat large margin. I think Wade really is the better player overall, starting out as a purple potential just made it to where he had a better chance, especially since I also had no idea how I was going to upgrade Pete when I initially got him. I do think getting Pete today would potentially set it up to where I could have developed him into a player that could even be better than Dan Yandell. But at the end of the day while Wade has proven himself to be a better player overall based on the above indicators, I think that it's also a weighted scale of Personal outweighs all other things… So as of now Pete Maravich sits higher in the Thunder hierarchy and in my heart than Zaire Wade. However, if Zaire Wade wins me a championship this season I do think that it will for sure cut the gap on Pete and maybe one day pass him up. I doubt that though to be honest.

Word count: ~ 3020

[greepleairport]

+10 pts